268 Count Salvador! on some New-Guinea Birds. 



abundant, and each of them has a concealed mesial yellow 

 line, which only appears on moving the feathers ; the greater 

 upper wing-coverts and the scapulars have yellowish tips ; the 

 quills are olive-brown above, and have a great part of the 

 inner web towards the base yellow ; the shafts of both the 

 remiges and rectrices are brown above and yellow underneath ; 

 the underparts are yellow, with a slight tinge of olive on the 

 front neck, especially on the middle of the feathers ; the bill 

 is black, a little paler at the base. 



Now it is quite evident that this specimen has several cha- 

 racters of the adult males of Xanthomelus aureus, and others 

 of the bird named Sericulus xanthogaster. In common with 

 X. aureus it has the head above orange-red, some black fea- 

 thers on the sides of the head and on the throat ; and the 

 feathers of the mantle, although of an olive-brown colour, 

 begin to show the shape of those of the adult males. From 

 these characters it appears quite certain that the above-men- 

 tioned bird is a male of X. aureus in transitional plumage. 



The characters in common with Sericulus xanthogaster are 

 the olive-brown colour of the upper parts, the long and nar- 

 row concealed yellow stripes on the middle of the feathers of 

 the mantle, the similar colouring of the quills, olive-brown 

 externally, and with the greater part of the inner web yellow, 

 the shafts of the remiges and of the rectrices brown above, 

 yellow underneath, and the reddish or fulvous colour of the 

 sides of the head. 



Turning now to the two specimens collected by Signor 

 D'Albertis, which agree with Sericulus xanthogaster, one of 

 them seems a little older than the other : in the younger one 

 the feathers of the mantle are shorter, with the concealed 

 mesial yellow marks narrower, the throat is pure fulvous red- 

 dish, while in the other it is tinged with yellow ; and in the 

 former the lower part of the front neck and upper part of the 

 breast have dark irregular lines or bands, as is shown in 

 Elliot's figure of Chlamydodera xanthogastra, while in the 

 other specimen those bands have already disappeared, and 

 only the middle of each feather of the same region appears a 

 little darker. 



